On Monday, Pompeo hinted at the Trump regime upping the stakes in Venezuela, saying “(t)he United States is drawing a clear line between those who aid (the Bolivarian Republic) and those” supporting US aims in the country.

He falsely blamed Maduro for US sabotage to Venezuela’s electrical grid, causing continuing widespread blackout conditions, a problem much more serious than initially believed, likely requiring considerable time, effort, and expertise to correct entirely.

Pompeo slammed Cuba and Russia for what he called “undermining the democratic dreams (sic) of the Venezuelan people and their welfare (sic).”

He turned reality on its head claiming “Cuba is the true imperialist power in Venezuela (sic), train(ing) Venezuelans’ secret police and torture tactics (sic), domestic spying techniques (sic), and mechanisms of repression the Cuban authorities have wielded against their own people for decades (sic),” adding:

Cuba and Maduro “disdain private property rights (sic), the rule of law (sic), and free and fair elections (sic). (They) routinely violate the basic human rights of their peoples (sic).”

Pompeo’s remarks about the Bolivarian republic and Cuba were bald-faced Big Lies.

Fact: Cuba’s leading exports to Venezuela and other countries are goodwill, doctors, and teachers. Washington’s leading exports are mass slaughter, destruction, and human misery.

Trump hardliners target both countries for regime change, along with Nicaragua regionally, what Bolton last November called a “troika of tyranny” – for their sovereign independence he, Pompeo, Abrams and DLT want eliminated, these countries transformed into US vassal states.

Pompeo slammed Russia for supporting Maduro, adding the Kremlin is “pressuring countries to disregard the democratic legitimacy (sic) of the interim president Guaido (sic).”

He’s an illegitimate US-designated puppet/usurper in waiting, guilty of sedition and/or treason, belonging in prison for the highest of high political crimes – betraying his nation and the Venezuelan people.

Interviewed on Fox News business, the Rupert Murdoch-owned channel gave Guaido a platform to lie – his public remarks scripted by Trump regime hardliners.

He lied claiming authority to invoke constitutional authority for the National Assembly to call for foreign intervention in the country, saying:

Did he set the stage for greater US intervention than already by whatever tactics Trump regime hardliners intend to employ?

He lied claiming blackout conditions in much of the country “generate(d) over 25 deaths (in) hospitals.”

The head nurse in one of Caracas’ leading hospitals reported none. He lied claiming “(t)he world has seen how Maduro’s government has burned medicines and foodstuffs. The world saw how they blocked trucks to enter medicine into the country.”

So-called aid included out-of-date, unsafe to use food and medicines, along with barbed wire and other implements for barricades, part of the Trump regime’s aim to cause internal turmoil.

Last Sunday, the NYT admitted that video footage released by the Colombian government showed so-called disruptive anti-Bolivarian guarimberos torched two so-called aid trucks with Molotov cocktails.

Neither Maduro or Venezuela’s military had anything to do with the incidents. In February, the Times and other establishment media claimed otherwise, the self-styled newspaper of record surprisingly setting the record straight belatedly.

On Monday, the opposition-controlled National Assembly (AN) declared a state of “national alarm” over “general calamity” conditions caused by US sabotage to the nation’s electrical grid it failed to explain.

Note: For illegally swearing in three contested legislators in January 2016, Venezuela’s Supreme Court held the opposition-controlled AN in contempt, its decisions null and void – the judiciary to act in its place because of its “contempt” and “incapacitation” to carry out its constitutional duties.

Separately on Monday, Guaido illegally declared a “national emergency.” He called for further public demonstrations on Tuesday, again urging Venezuelan military commanders and soldiers to defect.

Things remain in flux. On Monday, Maduro explained that blackout was caused by cyber-attacking Venezuela’s electrical power grid.

After around 70% of power was restored last Friday, further cyberattacks on the grid occurred, probably more to come until things are resolved.

It’s likely to take weeks or months if malware used resembles the powerful Stuxnet virus used against Iranian nuclear power plants in 2010 – a joint US/Israeli cyberattack. Perhaps they partnered again against Venezuela.

Maduro called the sabotage “a great violation of human rights in our country by the right wing, who celebrate national suffering.”

A Final Comment

Pompeo said remaining Trump regime personnel will be withdrawn from Venezuela this week. Most staff left in January after Maduro ordered them out.

Stephen Lendman was born in 1934 in Boston, MA. In 1956, he received a BA from Harvard University. Two years of US Army service followed, then an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1960. After working seven years as a marketing research analyst, he joined the Lendman Group family business in 1967. He remained there until retiring at year end 1999. Writing on major world and national issues began in summer 2005. In early 2007, radio hosting followed. Lendman now hosts the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network three times weekly. Distinguished guests are featured. Listen live or archived. Major world and national issues are discussed. Lendman is a 2008 Project Censored winner and 2011 Mexican Journalists Club international journalism award recipient.

About Stephen

Stephen Lendman was born in 1934 in Boston, MA. In 1956, he received a BA from Harvard University. Two years of US Army service followed, then an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1960. After working seven years as a marketing research analyst, he joined the Lendman Group family business in 1967.